Introspection
by Animako
Summary: Oneshot. A glimpse into my idea of Samus's mind... rain, shopping and what it means to be an outsider.


Samus's thoughts on rain, shopping and what could have been… one-shot.

* * *

It was raining. All around Samus people walked faster, hunching their shoulders and keeping their heads down. If anything she walked slower, savouring the feel of the rain against her skin. 

For her, it was a luxury. Spending most of your time in a powered suit gave you an incalculable advantage in fights, meant you were sheltered from all nature, not just the bad bits.

A girl wearing a crop top and miniskirt overtook her, hugging herself again the cold and rain. She glanced at the strange woman who wasn't hurrying.

Samus stared back, wondering where she was going dressed up like that, and in October (a/n do they do months in Metroid?). The girl smirked at her, surprisingly angrily, and turned into a shop, greeting someone loudly and shouting about a party.

Samus shrugged and walked on. It was easy to forget that dressed like a normal person she didn't command the same respect. She didn't know whether she liked seeming normal or not; still, she couldn't go shopping as her bounty hunter self so normal it would have to be.

She smiled slightly at the image of her walking into a department store wearing the power suit.

* * *

Almost regretfully, she walked into the mall, away from the rain. A pair of girls, perched on the back of benches, looked up as soon as she came in, and she felt surprise that anyone would recognise her here before they looked away again and she realised that they were waiting for someone else. 

The mall was packed full of people escaping the rain, and the noise was incredible. She started to thread her way through the crowd, looking for a shop that would be quieter than this place

She found a shop - Kelly T's, a little clothes store - and walked over, hoping this wouldn't take too long. Still, it had to be done; she was down to only having one outfit that would fit her and that hadn't been maimed by some creature over the years.

She found a few things as quickly as possible, reluctantly traipsing over to try them on. The attendant glared at her and ushered her in.

Some girls were already in the changing rooms when she entered. Hyper, feminine shrieking assailed her senses. She remembered why she hated shopping…how could she not have taken the time to find out what days counted as weekend here?

One of the girls was telling an anecdote about her Aunt Gladys, which seemed to have a hidden meaning that they found incredibly funny. Samus got changed back as quickly as she could and bought the clothes, followed, to her great annoyance, by the teens.

She wondered if normal people found them irritating.

Would a normal person talk to them, tell them to shut up or just ignore them?

At times like this she realised how much she'd cut herself off from the human world. She supposed she was too much a Chozo to live with humans, and too human to live with the Chozo. That had been her reason (excuse, the voice in the back of her head was saying) for leaving, and she'd held to it ever since.

She bought coffee from a random shop and walked on; pleased she'd got the shopping done. She could leave tomorrow.

* * *

She was almost at the exit of the mall when she was approached by a girl holding a clipboard. She looked young, not out of her teens, and her whole attitude betrayed her discomfort with what she was doing. 

"Excuse me Miss, would you mind answering a few questions?... It's for my Sociology project, at school"

Samus' first instinct was to walk off, ignore the girl. She stopped herself. Try and fit in, just for once. A dark part of her mind didn't accept the explanation she told herself - that her exile from both her peoples was voluntary, and born of her mixed bloods - and told her she had always been an outcast. She would prove it wrong, prove she could be normal if she chose.

"Sure" She said, smiling at the nervous girl.

The girl consulted her clipboard, talking with her head down which muffled the sound of her voice. Samus strained to hear her.

"What is your country of origin?"

Samus swallowed. A questionnaire she did to prove she could act normally, and up came a question that instantly proved her abnormal. Then again, thinking about it, a lot of questions would show her up as the strange creature she was; what is your job, where do you live… pretty much anything, actually.

She felt like running away, or shooting something. She forced herself to stay put. After all, what harm would it do to tell the truth? The girl needn't know her life story.

"…K2L." Her voice came out bluntly. The girl looked up, startled.

"…I, I'm sorry." Was she sorry for asking that question, or conveying condolences at the devastation of Samus's home? It didn't matter; neither were her fault.

The girl looked more awkward than ever, and Samus wondered if she would have hated doing surveys as much as her, if she'd ever gone to a school that made her do them. She felt sorry for the girl, didn't know how to break the silence between them. Asking if there were any more questions would sound rude, like she was rejecting the girl's sympathy. This was why social interaction had never been her forte.

"I left as a child. Escaped, I suppose." There was irony in her voice, but it didn't show. No one needed to know that there had been a survivor of the Space Pirates' raid, one of the most infamous instances of brutality in living memory. Samantha Lawrence was dead to her people

"Uh. Which age bracket would you say you were in?" Samus took the pro-offered clipboard, circled 20- 30.

The rest of the questions were about lifestyle, and Samus could dodge the question easily enough. She was between jobs and a traveller; she had a healthy diet and worked out a lot.

She learnt that the girl was called Nadianne, wanted to be a scientist, and hated sociology with a passion. Samus couldn't think of a way to reassure her about questioning strangers, but she did look more confident after having found Samus to be friendly, if awkward.

Samus left the mall in a thoughtful mood, feeling pleased with having had a conversation without recourse to threats. She had always been a quiet girl and while it was assumed this was because of the tragedy in her childhood, she wondered if would not have been inclined to silence even if she'd never lost anyone near to her.

Realising she was brooding on the matter, she snapped herself out of it and began to tidy away her purchases. She'd stay here overnight - there was a hotel nearby, she could afford it and she'd welcome a break from sleeping in the cramped room in her ship.

* * *

Several hours later she had decided against the hotel and was flying to meet a contact about an escort mission with a trader frigate. She'd never liked hotels too much, and it just wasn't in her nature to sit around any longer than she needed to. 

Besides, being around so many people made her morose. It was ridiculous. She was happy as she was, better off than most people. Why should she care that she didn't fit a stereotype?

Overall, she was happy the way she was. She was a hunter, and that was what she would always be. She wouldn't be happy living in one place, with one family and a plain job in a plain office.

Even as a little girl, she'd been drawn to the stars, captivated by the mystery and the concept of other worlds and other peoples.

She had never really lost this love, even when the other peoples became a harsh reality with her meeting of the Chozo and the Space Pirates. It was just that when she visited somewhere as normal as a mall it reallybrought it home to her how different her life was from the mode. She didn't regret it though. Agonising over ones normality _was_ normal, and it was more than likely that all the people she'd seen today brooded on stereotypes of normality and their image for more than she did, for far less reason.

Besides, she had been given a chance to avenge her loved ones, and that was more precious than superficial happiness or normality.

* * *


End file.
